Shortly after the sun hits the sand Wednesday morning on Vanderbilt Beach in Collier County, there will be more new there than just the usual detritus the Gulf tossed ashore.
What will be new will be lifeguards. Real, living men and women who's job it is to watch the waves and water and be prepared to dive right in to help anyone needing a hand.
North Collier Fire & Rescue District's new Ocean Rescue Lifeguard Program is a special addition to the Gulf beach. The new service kicks off at 9 a.m. and runs until 5 p.m.
"We are super excited to bring this program to Collier County. We're the only beach south of Sarasota with lifeguards on the beaches, and we are so excited to bring us to the community of Collier County and hope that the community enjoys it just as much."
That’s Kelly Heinemeyer, with North Collier Fire.
North Collier's lifeguard coverage at Vanderbilt Beach will start with one temporary lifeguard chair on loan from Collier County Parks and staffed by a lifeguard daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
A second lifeguard will be patrolling the beach on an ATV.
The district said the temporary setup allows the service to provide coverage ahead of the busy Fourth of July holiday while permanent infrastructure is completed.
That comes in August with the official launch and a ribbon-cutting ceremony featuring a permanent lifeguard tower near the Vanderbilt Beach turnaround, along with two permanent lifeguard chairs near The Turtle Club and Bay Colony Beach Club.
The chairs are being constructed by a local Eagle Scout candidate from Troop 2001 as his community service project.
The initiative has been in the works for a while. Following unanimous approval by the Collier County Board of County Commissioners in February, he district has been working to build a comprehensive Ocean Rescue Program that expands upon the lifeguard services they began providing at Sun-N-Fun Lagoon and Big Corkscrew Island Regional Park.
Heinemeyer, a lifeguard leader and one of the starters for the program, and others took to the beaches recently to hone lifeguard skills for some board work as well as both active and passive victim scenarios.
The Vanderbilt Beach deployment represents the first phase of a larger vision. The district said that additional beach coverage within the North Collier Fire Rescue District is planned and will be unveiled in the future.
The district said that Our mission extends beyond placing lifeguards on the beach.
"We are committed to making our waterways safer through prevention, education, rapid emergency response, and continuous program development," Heather Mazurkiewicz, public information officer for the district. "As the first fire-based agency south of Sarasota to implement this type of ocean rescue program, we're proud to help establish a framework that can continue to grow and hopefully serve as a model for other communities along Florida's Gulf Coast."
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